Apple sues Amazon over “App Store” trademark infringement

Mon, Mar 21, 2011

Legal, News

Network World reports:

Continuing on its quest to secure a trademark for “App Store”, Apple last week filed suit against Amazon alleging that the online retailer was improperly using the phrase “App Store” in its mobile software developer program. Specifically, Apple accuses Amazon of trademark infringement and unfair competition. Apple of course is also currently engaged in a legal spat with Microsoft over the same issue. Microsoft, for what it’s worth, isn’t backing down and claims that the term “App Store” is too generic to warrant trademark protection.

As for Amazon, the complaint notes that Amazon began using the phrase in early 2011 and did not adequately respond to repeated Apple demands that they stop using the name. Indeed, the name of of the developer program is “Amazon AppStore” and the phrase is plastered throughout Amazon’s pages detailing the program – which is geared towards enabling developers to sell their apps on Amazon.com.

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